Welcome to Part 3 of our Web Site Traffic Blueprint article series, where we show you how to drive traffic automatically to your site using the WordPress CMS.
In Part One of this series, we provided an overview of the process, and explained why using an expertly configured WordPress website or blog is the key to generating automated web traffic …
(With an expertly configured WordPress website, all you have to do to begin bringing more web traffic is publish new content consistently!)
In Part 2, we discussed critical setup decisions. We explained the best way to start if you don’t have a website yet, how to set everything up if you already have a site, and what to do if your site was built using WordPress.
(In Part two we show you how to set up a WordPress website or blog on your domain)
In this article, we will discuss the configuration phase of the traffic system. You will learn how a WordPress site should be configured in order to ensure that new traffic will automatically start flowing as you start to add new content to your website.
WordPress Web Traffic System – Configuration
The ability to attract more visitors to one’s website is often cited by most website owners as their greatest challenge online. With business getting so much more competitive worldwide, it’s worth learning about every opportunity you can to get better results online.
The ability to generate traffic on demand can provide website owners with a tremendous advantage over other competitors. Having an expertly configured website gives you an immediate advantage from the word “go”.
The Configuration Stage Is The Difference
There is a difference between an expertly configured WordPress site and a site that has been professionally set up by a web-building expert but not necessarily configured to its fullest advantage.
Here is a simple way to explain the differences:
An expertly configured WordPress site gives you a professional web presence plus online business marketing automation!
(An expertly configured site gives you a professional web presence and a built-in automated online business marketing tool!)
Not only does a whole lot more labor go into building and integrating an automated online business marketing process into your website, but also a special kind of expert knowledge.
Let’s illustrate this with an amusing little story.
Ludicrous Or Fair? You Decide …
All is going fine in the gizmo plant when suddenly, all machines comes to a complete stop.
As no one can figure out what is wrong, the plant manager decides to call in an expert.
Soon afterwards, the expert arrives and, without uttering a word, walks immediately to the main control box. After staring at the box for less than 5 minutes or so, the expert then produces a little hammer from his tool belt and makes a single tap about 2 cm from the left-hand side of the unit.
Immediately, everything returns to normal.
The manager is relieved as he thanks the expert, who leaves as quickly as he had arrived.
A couple of days later, the manager receives an invoice for the amount of $5,000.
Bewildered, the manager dials the expert. Demanding to know why they were charged so much for less than 5 minutes work, he promptly requests an itemized invoice to be sent and hangs up.
The next day, an invoice notice arrives on the manager’s desk. Upon opening the envelope, this is what he sees:
The number one challenge most businesses face online is driving traffic to their sites.
How much money did the widget factory stand to lose when production ground to a halt and no one in the factory floor had the expertise to fix it? Did the expert in our story not have the right to get paid fairly for having invested years developing the knowledge, skills and expertise that allowed him to avert a very serious crisis?
Similarly, if you could have a site configured so all you have to do is publish content to it and Google, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest and dozens of other online properties would be instantly notified, how much time and money would you save?
(How much better would your business be if you could automate the process of attracting new visitors to your site?)
While many experts often make complicated things look simple, it rarely turns out to be that way.
Expertly configuring a WordPress site is more than installing a website and configuring basic settings. It also requires knowing where to tap! This includes knowing things such as:
- Which programs you need to install to add certain functionalities to your site.
- Which third-party services you need to set up and activate to achieve desired outcomes
- Which settings need to be configured to make sure processes will run to plan, etc.
(Generating web traffic automatically with WordPress is a process that requires knowledge and expertise)
This stage of the traffic automation system is not so technically difficult, but it’s quite involved and time-consuming. It’s not just about installing and configuring one or two plugins, clicking on a button or two … it’s all this and much more.
Expertly configuring your website is a complex process that involves your server, your website or blog, and a number of third-party sites …
(The configuration stage involves more than just configuring some WordPress settings)
If all the steps involved in the configuration process were to be flowcharted, it would look something like this …
(A simplistic diagram showing all the steps involved in the configuration phase)
Let’s take a look at these steps.
Web Hosting
We’re not talking about the process of configuring your web-hosting account for installation purposes. We’re talking about fine-tuning settings in your webhosting account specifically for handling all web traffic …
(During the configuration stage, your server settings need to be checked for handling both good and bad traffic)
Not all traffic is beneficial traffic. Some of the web traffic your website will attract will be unwanted traffic like bot spam, malicious threats, bot-hacking attempts, etc.
This stage of the configuration process, therefore, is all about planning for both bad and good traffic and adjusting settings in your server accordingly. This includes looking at things like implementing spam protection and securing server files, to configuring domain and email forwarding, etc …
(Have you configured your webhosting settings for handling things like emails, page error redirects, etc?)
After checking your web server settings and configuring these, the next step of the configuration phase is to set up various external sites and services.
External Accounts
The purpose of adding external sites is that all content gets posted to one central location (your WordPress site) and from there, it gets distributed automatically to other components of your web traffic generation system, or notify traffic-related web properties and services.
After adding these external services to your network, content pointing back to your site will get automatically fed to your search, social and aggregator accounts. Your content and site will benefit from exposure online, helping your business tap into new sources of traffic.
Some of these sites will need to have accounts set up before configuring your site’s settings to help speed up the process and some will need to be done later, during the automation phase.
For example, here are just some of the accounts you will need to have set up before configuring your settings:
Google Search Console
(Google Search Console – create a Google-friendly website)
Google Webmaster Tools lets you notify Google about your site’s pages, submit XML sitemaps for faster page indexing, and provides you with a range of important information, SEO tools and diagnostic reports about your website.
After setting up your account with Google Search Console, use this information with web traffic settings and notifications in WordPress using plugins like Yoast SEO (see further below) and other applications.
Google Analytics
(Google Analytics)
Google Analytics lets you improve your site’s performance, SEO, user engagement, marketing activities, sales conversions, and more, by tracking all user behaviour, pages visited, keywords searched for, search engine and organic referrals, etc.
Once your Google Analytics account is set up, visitor tracking information can be easily integrated with WordPress via a simple Google Analytics plugin and instantly sent to many other useful applications.
Bing Webmaster Tools
(Bing Webmaster Tools)
Bing Webmaster Tools is similar to Google Webmasters. After setting up your Bing Webmaster Tools account and entering site data, use the information with traffic-related settings in WordPress (e.g. using plugins like Yoast SEO) and other applications.
WordPress.com
(WordPress.com)
As discussed in Part 2, WordPress offers both the option of a hosted vs self-hosted website. We recommended choosing the self-hosted WordPress version if you plan to grow a professional online presence for your business.
WordPress.com (the hosted option), however, provides some great tools, which can be accessed by a number of WordPress plugins. We recommend setting up an account with WordPress.com, therefore, and we’ll show you how to integrate these features into your automated web traffic generation system in Part 4 of this article series.
Social Media And Social Bookmarking Sites
(Syndicate your content automatically to your social media sites and social bookmarking accounts and bring new traffic to your site)
You will need your various social media and social bookmarking accounts set up before you can configure these as part of your traffic generation system.
Once you have set up and configured everything, you will be able to syndicate your content automatically to your social media sites and social bookmarking accounts and bring new visitors to your site.
Make sure you have accounts and pages set up with all the well-known social networks – Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, Pinterest, etc.
There are many social bookmarking sites you can syndicate your content to. You don’t need to create accounts with all of them, just choose those that will work with your system and/or content syndication tools (we will look at some of these tools in greater detail in the Automation phase).
(You can syndicate your content to loads of social bookmarking sites. Image source ShareThis.com)
Additional Services, Content Aggregators, Etc.
There are a number of emerging technology platforms and content aggregators that can serve as secondary-level sources of traffic. Some are free or provide free plans, and some are paid services.
For example, here is a content aggregator that allows you to add an RSS feed from your website …
RebelMouse
(RebelMouse)
RebelMouse is an aggregator for your RSS feeds and social profiles. Your content displays in a Pinterest-like format and visitors can follow your RebelMouse social feed.
There are various solutions that can be added to your own traffic blueprint. Please contact us if you would like to explore your options and discuss a strategy to suit your needs.
Once you have configured your web server and set up accounts with third-party services, it’s time to configure your WordPress site’s settings.
WordPress Site Configuration
The first step in configuring your WordPress site for traffic is to make sure that its global settings have been set up correctly.
Let’s go over some of the important points.
Global WordPress Settings
By default, all WordPress installations include a Settings section that allows you to configure your site’s main settings …
(WordPress admin menu – Settings)
General Settings
Sections like Site Title and Tagline can affect your site’s SEO, search listings, etc …
(Global Settings – General Settings Section)
Writing
The Writing Settings area contains a powerful and frequently overlooked automated traffic notification system …
(Global Settings – Writing Settings Screen)
As stated below the Update Services section,
When you publish a new post, WordPress automatically notifies the following site update services …
Unless you or your webmaster have specifically configured your site settings to prevent search engines from indexing your site, then your site will automatically notify the list of update services entered into the Update Services text box
With an ‘out of the box’ WordPress installation, only one service is listed …
(Update Services – A Powerful Traffic Feature Of WordPress)
You can notify dozens of update services automatically …
(Notify dozens of update services automatically!)
Download A Comprehensive List Of Ping Services For Your WordPress Site!
Click the link below to download a comprehensive list of reliable and authoritative ping services for your WordPress site or blog:
Download A List Of Ping Services For Your WordPress Site
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Note: If you need help setting up the list of ping services on your site, we recommend using a professional web services provider. You can find professional WordPress service providers in our WordPress Services Directory.
Reading Settings
This section affects how visitors will see your content when they visit your home page and blog pages.
The syndication settings on this page can influence web traffic. For example, your choice of displaying the full text vs a summary of your post, affects how your content shows up in RSS feeds and blog post digests, and could play a part in someone’s decision to explore your content further, and whether or not they will visit your website to read the rest of the content from excerpts, or read the content in full without the need to click through to your site.
As far as your traffic system is concerned, however, the most important setting here is whether the Search Engine Visibility feature is enabled or not.
Normally, you want search engines to visit your site. Leaving this box unchecked allows WordPress to automatically ping all the update services you have listed in the Update Services area when a new post is published (see Writing Settings above). Unless you have a specific reason to discourage search indexing spiders from visiting your site, make sure this box is left unchecked …
(Settings Menu – Reading Settings)
Discussion
Although discussion settings are mostly concerned with how users engage with content on your site, you have the option to allow notifications to blogs linked to from your articles, and to allow link notifications from other blogs (pingbacks and trackbacks). This can work for you, but it can also drive bad traffic in the form of SPAM comments …
(Settings Menu – Discussion Settings Section)
Permalinks
Your Permalink settings allow you to create SEO-friendly URLs …
(Global Settings – Permalinks)
The examples below show some of the options for configuring your site’s permalinks …
(Configuring permalink URLs)
For a detailed tutorial about setting up permalinks, go here: Improve Your WordPress SEO Using SEO-Friendly URLs
WordPress Traffic Plugins – Configuration
The WordPress developer community makes available plugins that can add just about every kind of functionality to your site, including plugins that add traffic generation capabilities.
Here are some types of plugin categories that affect traffic and plugin examples
Blog Defender Security Plugin
Once again, it’s important to configure your site for dealing with both good traffic and bad traffic. No blog is safe from cyberattacks.
(Security Plugins help prevent bad traffic from causing your website harm)
Security plugins like Blog Defender help to make your WordPress site invisible to bots and hackers.
To learn more, go here:
WordPress SEO Plugins – Yoast SEO
WordPress SEO plugins help drive more traffic by making your site more search engine friendly …
(Yoast SEO – WP SEO Plugin)
Use a plugin like Yoast SEO (formerly known as WordPress SEO by Yoast) to improve your SEO. Once properly configured, this plugin not only makes your site easier for search engines to find, classify and index, it also lets you configure how your content will show up in Google’s search results and social media sites Twitter, Facebook, and GooglePlus.
Social Sharing Plugins
Allowing visitors to easily share your content with their friends and members of their social networks can help drive significant traffic to your site, especially if you provide content that adds real value to readers.
(You can add social sharing buttons to your site easily with free or inexpensive WordPress plugins)
There are loads of social sharing plugins available for WordPress users.
Most social sharing plugins allow you to specify which social sites your content can be shared to, embed social buttons into your content, set up default notifications, display/hide share counters (e.g. number of shares), etc. Some social plugins even allow you to set up protected content areas on your pages which users can unlock by linking or tweeting your page.
WordPress Traffic Generation Theme Features – Configuration
As well as configuring various plugins, many WordPress themes also include features that help grow your traffic.
For example, in addition to options and settings for configuring layout and design aspects of your website, some themes also give you options for improving search optimization and site linking structure for faster indexing, add analytics code, social sharing buttons, etc …
(Many WP themes like Graphene (a highly customizable free theme) include built-in traffic optimization features)
With many themes, adding social sharing buttons and features to your content is as easy as selecting the option to enable this functions …
(Many WordPress themes provide built-in social sharing features)
WordPress Traffic Automation – Additional Configuration Steps
Last (but by no means least) in the WordPress traffic blueprint configuration process, are the components that need to be set up outside of the global settings.
These include:
Website Legal Pages
Once again, when preparing your site for a growth in traffic numbers, it’s important to plan not only how to handle good and bad traffic but also for all the situations that can cause serious damage to your business when more and more people find and begin to visit your website.
If you make money online, you need to ensure that your site remains compliant with regulatory agencies.
(Is Your Website Compliant?)
We have created a detailed article on why it’s important to have a legally compliant website here:
Post Categories And Tags
WordPress post categories and tags help to improve your site’s SEO, which helps to increase traffic.
(Categories help improve traffic by improving your site’s SEO.)
As we strongly recommend in this article, it’s best to discuss and set up your website’s post categories and tags during the Website Planning Process.
In the configuration phase, you will want to review and make sure that your site’s categories and tags have been correctly set up to deliver optimal benefits and results.
Add A Site Map
A site map that lists all of your site’s posts and pages to visitors is not only a useful navigation tool, it can also help external sites discover your website content …
(A site map is not just great for visitors, but for web traffic too!)
It’s important to note that an HTML site map and an XML sitemap are not the same things. Only search engines can interpret XML sitemaps. Although Google can index your pages just from an XML sitemap (which a plugin like Yoast SEO will create for you – see earlier section), making it easier for visitors to find more pages on your site can result in increased traffic.
Configure Your 404 Page
When visitors searching for your website enter the wrong web address or click on a link pointing to a destination on your website that no longer exists, they will normally be greeted with an error – page not found message …
(A WordPress 404 Page)
Configuring your 404 Error Page allows you to redirect web traffic that may otherwise be lost. …
(Configuring your 404 page allows you to redirect web traffic that may otherwise be lost.)
Although a 404 page can be set up in your web server, there are several plugins for WordPress that let you easily configure your 404 page from your WordPress admin area.
WordPress Traffic Automation Blueprint: Configuration Process – Summary
Once you have your WordPress site expertly configured and fully set up, all you then need to do is add fresh content on a regular basis to drive web traffic.
The process of expertly configuring a WordPress site, however, is quite involved and elaborate and requires the configuration and integration of a number of different components and external web properties …
(WP Traffic Blueprint – Configuration Checklist)
The skills and knowledge involved in expertly configuring a WordPress site typically takes some web professionals a long time to acquire.
Once you have expertly configured your WordPress site, the next step is to automate the aspects of the process that can be automated. This step is explained in the next article in our WordPress Traffic Blueprint series.
This is the end of Section 3
To read the rest of this article, click here:
This article is part of an article series designed to help you learn how to grow your business online inexpensively and drive traffic organically with a WordPress website and proven web marketing methods.
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